Abstract
Meat firmness of muscles of sixteen crustacean species was examined to clarify the contribution of the following three factors to the raw meat texture: 1) total collagen content in muscle, 2) distribution of intramuscular collagen fibers, and 3) properties of an α component, α2 (AR-I), which is one of the constituents of Type AR-I collagen. Total collagen content varied among species, ranging from 0.04 to 0.58% per wet tissue and from 0.4 to 3.5% per total tissue protein. The component α2 (AR-I) was distributed widely among custacean species, but it was not detected in some species of crabs. Moreover, a considerable difference in the relative staining intensity of the α2 (AR-I) component to the total collagen (α2 (AR-I)/total collagen) was revealed among species.
The muscles of prawns and shrimps which showed relatively high collagen content and high relative staining intensity of α2 (AR-I)/total collagen tended to be firm in contrast to those of crabs, whose firmness and collagen contents were lower. In light microscopic observation, the muscles of prawns and shrimps exhibited a dense distribution of collagen fibers, while the muscles of crabs had a sparse distribution. These results indicated that the three factors described above had very important roles in determining the raw meat texture of crustaceans.
